A special day deserves a special celebration, and the Pakistani way of celebrating is with something sweet to eat. So for our 75th Independence Day, why don’t you all celebrate with this very simple cookie recipe that is green and white to match the colours of our dear flag.

Making green cookies doesn’t require heavy doses of gamma radiation, like Hulk had to turn green in the Marvel universe. Just add a pinch of green food colour and top with some white chocolate chips and your Independence Day cookies are ready!

You can also use any other cookie recipe that you like, just don’t add cocoa powder if the recipe says so. Substitute cocoa powder with equal amount of flour.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 1cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp green food colour or as required
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence (optional)

Method

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sieve the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix well. Add an egg into this and 1/4 teaspoon of green colour. Mix well.

If the colour seems fine, keep it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or add more colour, mix and refrigerate. Right now the dough is too soft so and it will melt very quickly on baking and result in very thin cookies.

Once the batter is firmer in the refrigerator, take it out and make small balls, flatten slightly and place over a parchment paper on a baking tray. As the cookies will increase to twice their size on baking, so make sure to place them at a distance.

Put white chocolate chips on top and bake for 12-15 minutes. The longer you will bake, the crispier the cookies will be. I like cookies to be a bit chewy, so I baked them for about just under 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the tray for five minutes or so, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. But you can always start eating them any time you want!

These will store well in an airtight container and no need for refrigeration.

A very happy Independence Day to you all. Long live Pakistan!

The writer Instagrams @the_experimentalcook

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 13th, 2022